Arrived in the Philippines, with some hassle however.

Here we are again…Not even good and well arrived and already a story to tell. As usual, airport troubles. When I checked in in Paris, the staff of Gulf Air wouldn’t let me go, due to a one way ticket. ‘Shit’ you think then. I showed them my travelpass and my previous stamps of the PH. “I’ve been there before with a one way ticket and I didn’t have problems, miss.” (which was a lie) They went to the manager and explained the problem. The manager let me go. Once in Bahrain (UAE) we got a delay of 1 hour, which made me miss my connection flight. I had to wait another 4 hours to jump on the other plane. Stress because I would miss my connection flight in Manila to Cebu because of this.

I was lucky however, the flight arrived 30mins before schedule in Manila. Yeey. Not yeey for long…Immigration: “Can I see your return ticket, sir?”…”Euhm, I don’t have”…”You don’t have? How long you intend to stay here?”…”I don’t know, pretty long time.”
Ok sir, please follow me. You can’t enter the country. We need to put you on a plane back to origin. You’re in custody now. “Oh Fuck”…In the meanwhile they called the manager of Gulf Air in the manila NANIA airport. This filipino was a great guy. Firstly Gulf Air had to pay a fine of 50.000pesos because they let me go one way (not my fault it seemed). Secondly I needed to buy a return ticket. Only then I could enter. Oh my, no, I can’t spend all those euros on a ticket I won’t use…And I need to catch my connection flight to Cebu instantly. I only had 40 mins left…stress, disbelieve, cursing on myself, trying to stay nice and cool to the police and manager of Gulf Air.
The manager got me in, however I can’t say exactly how on this blog, due to several reasons…if you understand what I mean.

After I was ‘bailed out’ I rushed to terminal 3 where I was already too late, but after a brief explanation they luckily checked me in. Wow, what a relief…More then 24 hours stress it was: not allowed to depart, delays, in custody,…

Now I’m staying with Shayne in a house, shared with an Austrian Kristof, and a Filipina mom with kid. Nice bunch of people, nice neighbourhood…all going well!

Next week I’ll start my first freediving session. I’ll meet the world record holder!

tada.